


The Sun Shines High and Bright

by K_promises_fall



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 06:05:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21351457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K_promises_fall/pseuds/K_promises_fall
Summary: Azula's dreams are as high as the sun. Still, she reaches a hand up to grasp it.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 25





	The Sun Shines High and Bright

She falls in slow motion.

\---

On a night no more special than any other, a queen goes into labour. She is not called a queen, but that is what she is - a Lady bound in marriage to a Lord who is first in his nation. She goes into labour at night, but it is not until the sun is high in the sky - bright and glaring - that she gives birth to a daughter. The girl cries as the Lord holds her, and the Lady sleeps as a brother looks at a crying sister and wonders at his place in the world, now that he must share it.

The priests say that the Princess Azula was born chasing the sun. Years later, the Princess understands what they meant but were too cowardly to say plainly. Princess Azula was born destined to lose.

\---

The Princess Azula is a monster, and what of it? She is a Princess, and she craves more. If she is to be great, greater than her father, greater than Firelord Azulon and even Firelord Sozin - a man, no a Lord strong enough to take on even the Avatar at the height of his power - if she is to surpass any of them she must be more than just a human, more than a firebender or a princess, more than a prodigy.

The goals of Princess Azula are great. The Fire Nation has been in a stalemate with the Earth Kingdom for too long. A hundred years has only seen the Air Nomads eradicated and the Southern Water Tribe decimated, not conquered. She will change that.

Princess Azula chases the sun. _ She _ will be the difference. _ She _ will do what all who came before her could not. The world will be hers. Fire Nation, Earth Nation, Water Tribes, what will such distinctions matter when she conquers them all? The Fire Nation will be the tool she uses to achieve that goal.

So what if she is a monster? She is merely what she needs to be to achieve her dream.

What need does she have for a mother’s love? What need does she have for compassionate friends?

What she needs is strength. A strong body and a stronger mind. The Princess Azula trains in blood and sweat, because that is what will be required on the field of battle. The Prince Zuko cries in his mother’s arms as she bandages his knee, cut from a fall onto hard stone. The Princess laughs at his weakness. She’s only eight.

\---

They say that the Princess Azula is a prodigy. The Prince Zuko works hard, but cannot compare. He is too soft. The Princess Azula thinks differently. To her, the Prince Zuko is lazy. He takes breaks too often, gives up too easily, and is quick to wallow in his own lack and complain about things being _ unfair _ . His laziness makes him weak, and he looks at Princess Azula and sees the height of what he should be. He wonders why _ he _ hadn’t been born special, why _ he _ wasn’t a prodigy when he is first born and the next in line for the throne.

The Princess Azula looks at herself and sees only flaws. A word haunts her. “Almost”. She is not strong enough. Not yet. When she is older she will have the weight of the world on her shoulders, and that is a burden that cannot be shared with others. She alone will have to carry it. Under that weight, a single misstep would be her ruin. She cannot falter.

Almost.

Almost.

Almost.

Almost isn’t good enough.

The Prince Zuko is lazy. He thinks he trains and studies hard. He thinks he can put in no more effort than he already does. He thinks his situation is hopeless and he will never please his father. The Princess Azula works harder than he can imagine. She pleases their father, but is never satisfied with herself.

\---

When the Princess Azula is eleven, the Prince Zuko is banished from the Fire Nation. The disgraced General Iroh goes with him, one failure following another. They will have a place in her empire, everyone will, of course. But for now, they were only in her way and she’s happy to be rid of them.

She chases the sun. The Prince Zuko, before he is burned, looks up and sees only the shadow of his father’s face eclipsing the sun. He knows it is unreachable, but has only ever wanted to be good enough to stand beneath its rays with pride. The Princess Azula stands beneath that sun, her view unobscured, and takes another step forward to her dream.

\---

Failure surrounds the Princess Azula. The failure of relatives and generals and Firelords. The failure is visible to all. A boy who can bend air; a tribe of savages once defeated but still free; a city of ice bordered by a grave of Fire Nation ships and soldiers. But failure is not something new to the Princess Azula. She has stood beside failure all her life in the form of her brother, and so she understands failure for what it is.

To the Princess Azula, failure is merely the opportunity to present herself as the solution. She is surrounded by failure, but she knows that she can succeed. She just needs the chance to prove it.

\---

She stumbles. Her brother escapes, as does the Avatar. She almost caught both.

Almost.

She stumbles, but does not falter. She is not good enough, not yet, but she knows that she is still more capable than any other.

The drill was obvious. Too obvious. But it was a plan already in motion. It is sabotaged, of course, the cost of a plan so obviously presented. But the Princess Azula does not falter. She has her own plan.

Others might fail. But the Princess Azula succeeds.

She does what no one else before her could do. The Princess Azula conquers Ba Sing Se. It is the first major victory since the massacre of the Air Nomads. And she is only fourteen.

\---

The Princess Azula chases the sun. She chases it alone. A step. Two. Three. A city captured. Towns subjugated. The machinery of war, churning with purpose, eating land and lives alike once more after a hundred years with rocks stuck between the gears. 

A Lord takes notice as the sun shines high in the sky. As he gazes out at his expanding kingdom, he sees opportunity on the horizon.

A Prince disgraced and rejected looks out from the other end of that horizon and sees only loss.

\---

Two siblings stand together in a cave, soaking wet. It is the end of a battle. They have won. 

But both doubt.

The Princess Azula doubts her victory; after all, others have claimed before that the Avatar was dead, and although the blow she struck was great she has no body to show for it.

The Prince Zuko doubts his choice. He stands on the side of his family, his nation and his history. He stands in the shade of his old dreams of honour and pride by his father’s side. With the Avatar dead, he stands on the side that has won, but he fears that it is the wrong side.

Two siblings stand, reunited, but not together. 

The Princess Azula chases the sun, but she sees shadows on the horizon and knows she must move forward with care.

\---

Failure. The Princess Azula finds herself surrounded by it yet again. She looks up at the sky and sees something similar to what her brother saw just two years prior. A shadow looms overhead, blotting out the sun. It will be gone soon enough, but the shadows settle around her and they never leave.

Around her, a nation crawls out of hiding as its enemies slink away from their shores, defeated, but not beaten. It should be her victory, but the Avatar lives, the Prince Zuko has joined him and her enemies are rallying together as they have never done before.

She is still not good enough. She feels it in her bones.

Almost.

Almost.

Almost.

\---

The sun is high in the sky, but the Princess Azula lies on the ground, unmoving. Betrayed.

The heat of the sun scorches her through her armour, but her anger burns hotter.

The Princess Azula chases the sun; secretly, she wonders why it is she must chase it alone.

She falters, but steps forward all the same. Her goal is in reach, she knows it.

\---

How can she rule when she is surrounded by incompetence? If Sozin’s comet is to be the key to victory, then there is only one way that key can be utilized. Overwhelming force. One day is not enough. If it is to be all they have, then the victory must be unmatched, unquestioned, and without mercy.

If fire is to be the weapon, then all must burn. And if that makes her a monster, what of it? Her goals were always monstrous.

But she is surrounded by incompetence. She can trust no one but herself, and she is not enough. But she must be.

\---

The brightness of the comet outshines the sun. The Firelord, Azula sits in a room surrounded by flames. She is alone. She is betrayed. She is aimless.

She steps forward regardless. Destiny weighs on her shoulders. She cannot see the sun.

She is only fourteen.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a year since I've written anything. I missed doing this.


End file.
